Former 'Today Show' host Bryant Gumbel retired 2 years ago at the age of 65 to spend more time with his wife

Bryant Gumbel, often considered the heart and soul of The Today’s Show, which airs on NBC, retired two years back. Brain had an outstanding career and hosted the Today’s Show for fifteen years. We now look back to see what led to the legendary journalist’s stepping down.

Bryant has said he went on to retire as it was an appropriate time. And also, his health and family called for it. But, others have stated that the studio wanted a complete makeover of the show with new faces, as the ratings had been falling for consecutive years. They needed to take a drastic measure to cope with the changing times.

Whilst, friends and family have said that the retirement was called for mainly due to his health, as it had begun to show signs of deterioration after his 2009 surgery. In 2009, Bryant had to remove a tumor that had developed in his lung via a surgery.

Sources close to the family have also said that Bryant, now after reaching a late age, is concerned about his cancer returning, so he wants to be as precocious as he can.

Bryant has also been under heavy medication since then, which has led to fatigue and stress. This, in turn, has an effect on his hosting abilities. Fans of Bryant however, have stated that sixty-five being the required age of retirement, Bryant simply did what was called for professionally.

Bryant, personally in his statement, has said he took up retirement as he wanted to spend more time with his wife Hillary Quinlan and his children and grand children. He has also laid out his intentions of writing a book, a project he long wanted to undertake but was not able to, due to his busy schedule.

Brian, in his illustrious career which spanned more than forty years, was part of many shows. Some of his most notable shows were “Good Morning America”, “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” and “Inside Sports”.

He was also the recipient of many prestigious awards in his career. Some of the awards he has won are, the prestigious Peabody award and International Journalism award. He also has four Emmy awards, which is one of the highest by an African American journalist.

Bryant is currently 67 years of age. He begun his career when he was just 24, as an office help running errands for everyone on the office.

He has been married twice. His first wife was June Baranco, to whom he was married for over twenty seven years.

Bryant is not active in social media and considers himself to be a more traditional person. He does not hold any profiles in any of the social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram.